Old Foes Leeds and Norwich to Square Off | OneFootball

There might not be an obvious rivalry between Leeds United and Norwich City but the two clubs’ recent history certainly makes for an interesting FA Cup fifth round clash on Sunday.

Farke in Common

There is the obvious connection with Daniel Farke, the current Leeds United, and former Norwich City, manager. Farke speaks of his “fond memories” at the East Anglian side, who he twice guided to promotion to the Premier League, winning the EFL Championship on both occasions.

Those fond memories are mostly reciprocated by Canaries fan. The German was somewhat harshly sacked early on in Norwich’s second Premier League campaign. The management had concerns over his ability to keep them up, particularly after the anxiety-ridden performance of the club under his guidance in that first promoted season.

That reputation has been difficult for Farke to shake. His record in the Championship is outstanding; his promotion count from the division is now three after last season’s campaign with Leeds. Despite Farke’s accomplishes (the team finished on 100 pts. and a +65 goal differential), there was speculation that he could even be replaced before the 2025/26 season because of that gloomy Premier League record.

Farke has a real opportunity to prove his doubters wrong this season by keeping Leeds up. Their poor recent run of form has again cast doubt on whether he can do that, but his willingness to move away from his preferred style of play and go more direct has reaped rewards and has the Whites in with a real chance of survival.

Canaries Surviving the Coal Mine

Contrastingly, Norwich have been in fine form under new boss Philippe Clement of late. It has been a desperately disappointing campaign for the Canaries, who would have had hopes of competing for promotion when Liam Manning took over his hometown club in the summer.

His reign proved to be a disastrous one, however, and former Rangers, Club Brugge and Monaco boss Clement was called in to save their season with relegation to League One looking a real possibility.

He has certainly done what was asked of him and those relegation fears have eased considerably. Norwich have moved up to 17th and ten points clear of the bottom three, and have won five of the last six games in all competitions.

Plenty of History

Farke’s return is not the only interesting link between these two sides, however. An unlikely rivalry began to brew back in the two sides’ League One days when the two battled it out for promotion.

Leeds fans’ negative feelings towards Norwich grew in the 2010s when the Canaries made a habit of pinching United’s best players. Jonny Howson, Bradley Johnson, Luciano Becchio and Robert Snodgrass all made the move from Yorkshire to Norfolk during a short spell.

The two found themselves going head to head again in the 2018/19 campaign, with Norwich clinching top spot while Leeds were forced to settle for the play-offs and ultimately missed out on going up.

While their rivalry has quietened in recent years, a meeting of the two clubs certainly throws up plenty of unresolved tensions between them.